Remote NIC Configuration Management

Transcription

1 This Dell Technical White Paper addresses the issue of remotely managing the NIC configuration from a source server to a destination server Sankara Gara Divya Vijayvargiya

2 This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions in typography or photography. Dell, the Dell logo, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Server are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. March 2012 Rev 1.0

3 Contents Executive summary... 4 Introduction... 4 NIC configuration in general... 4 Tools available prior to Lifecycle Controller... 4 Advantages of Lifecycle Controller... 4 Simple NIC Profile... 5 Read NIC attributes and settings... 6 Configure NIC attributes and settings... 6 NIC configuration methods... 7 Script work flows... 7 Pull and Push... 7 Pull and Diff with saved baseline Conclusion Learn more... 12

4 Executive summary Dell provides a mechanism that enables users to work with NIC configuration settings as a whole, rather than having to work with each setting individually. This enables end users to: Save a NIC configuration as baseline Compare a configuration to a saved baseline and display their differences Set a NIC configuration using a saved baseline Introduction In this white paper, we will focus on: NIC Management Profile Get and set NIC configuration Save a NIC configuration as baseline Compare a configuration to a saved baseline and display their differences Set a NIC configuration using a saved baseline NIC configuration in general NIC configuration allows the user to set up or modify configuration settings for supported NIC cards (e.g. Intel, Qlogic, and Broadcom). These configuration settings can be set or updated both locally and remotely using a server management system like the Dell Lifecycle Controller. Tools available prior to Lifecycle Controller Locally on a system using F2 / System setup Vendor provided OptionRom Hiitest tool libsmbios, an open source project (NOTE: compatible with Dell servers prior to 12G). The above tools do not offer true programmatic interfaces for extension or modification of current supported behavior. Advantages of Lifecycle Controller Lifecycle Controller provides users with the ability to remotely deploy and manage a Dell PowerEdge server platform. Leveraging the embedded OS drivers and the idrac service processor, Lifecycle Controller aims at effectively resolving common pain points associated with platform provisioning and deployment. Using Lifecycle Controller, users can: Deploy the operating system Manage BIOS and BOOT configuration Manage NICs/CNA configurations Manage vflash SD cards

5 Manage RAID configurations Manage Auto-Discovery Manage certificates Perform remote updates Manage part replacement Use remote firmware inventory Retrieve hardware inventory View Lifecycle logs Simple NIC Profile The table below lists the classes, functions, operations, and methods available under the Simple NIC Profile. Table 1. Simple NIC Profile DCIM_NICService Class Name Functions Operations Methods Use this central class to modify the NIC attributes. Get Enumerate Invoke DCIM_NICEnumeration Use this sub-class to display the Get Enumerate SetAttribute() SetAttributes() properties of NIC enumeration instances. DCIM_NICInteger Use this sub-class to display the Get Enumerate SetAttribute() SetAttributes() properties of NIC integer instances. DCIM_NICString Use this sub-class to display the properties of NIC Get Enumerate SetAttribute() SetAttributes() string instances. DCIM_NICView Use this sub-class Get None to display the properties of NIC inventory instances Enumerate

6 Read NIC attributes and settings The enumerate operation is used to get a list of all the attributes of a given class. A Get operation is used to get a specific attribute of a given class. All NIC attribute instances carry base properties like AttributeName, CurrentValue, PendingValue, etc. In addition to this, each attribute also carries metadata such as MinLength, MaxLength, LowerBound, UpperBound, ValueExpression, PossibleValues, and etc., as appropriate to the attribute type. Attributes that are writable or settable have IsReadOnly property set to false. DCIM_NICEnumeration class represents all attributes that contain enumeration type values: AttributeName = LinkStatus, CurrentValue = Connected PossibleValues = (Disconnected, Connected) DCIM_NICInteger class represents all attributes that contain integer type value: AttributeName=LnkUpDelayTime, CurrentValue=0, UpperBound=255, LowerBound=0 DCIM_NICString class represents all attributes that contain string type value: AttributeName=VirtMacAddr, CurrentValue= 78:2B:CB:54:57:23, MinLength=17, MaxLength=17 Refer to the Simple NIC Profile section of this paper for more details. Configure NIC attributes and settings NIC configuration uses the Set (pending values) and Apply (Commit) methodology for configuration. This methodology allows the user to schedule a configuration by staging changes and applying them (pending values) now or at a future time convenient to the user depending on the method parameters stipulated. The following steps are required for configuration: 1. Set one or more NIC attributes using DCIM_NICService.SetAttribute() or DCIM_NICService.SetAttributes() 2. Read the pending changes using enumeration commands 3. Schedule a job to apply the configuration using DCIM_NICService.CreateTargetedConfigJob() 4. Read the status of the job until it completes 5. Read again the updated values using enumeration commands

7 NIC configuration methods The SetAttribute() method is used to set or change the value of a NIC attribute. The SetAttributes() method is used to set or change the values of a group of attributes. The CreateTargetedConfigJob() method is used to apply the pending values created by the SetAttribute() and SetAttributes() methods. The successful execution of this method creates a job for application of pending attribute values. Subsequent calls to the CreateTargetedConfigJob() method after the first CreateTargetedConfigJob() method results in an error until the first job is completed. However, the user can delete the current job and create a new job using CreateTargetedConfigJob(). The DeletePendingConfiguration() method cancels the pending configuration (created using the SetAttribute and SetAttributes methods) changes made before the configuration job is created with CreateTargetedConfigJob(). Script work flows Pull and Push This use case demonstrates cloning of the NIC configuration using two-step process: Pull (read from Lifecycle Controller) followed by a Push (write to another Lifecycle Controller).

8 Figure 1. Work flow: Pull and Push 1. Pull the configuration from a baseline system. a. Configure the baseline system to the desired NIC configuration using remote services or any other existing NIC configuration methods. b. Pull the NIC configuration from the baseline system using the following command:

9 The getnic python script internally enumerates on DCIM_NICEnumeration, DCIM_NICString, and DCIM_NICInteger to create a consolidated list of system configuration. 2. Push the configuration to one or more systems. Push the baseline NIC configuration to a target system using the following command:

10 The setnic script internally uses SetAttributes and CreateTargetedConfigJob to set changed values and create and execute a configuration job to update the target system configuration. Pull and Diff with saved baseline This use case demonstrates steps to view differences between NIC configurations of two different systems using a two-step process. Figure 2. Work flow: Pull and Diff 1. Pull the NIC configuration from one of the systems using the following command: 2. Diff the saved configuration with the second system using the following command:

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12 Output of the diff command will be available in text file and html file formats. Conclusion The remote service functionality that allows the user to save a particular NIC configuration, clone that NIC configuration on another server with an identical NIC card and firmware, and view the difference between the saved configuration and one from another server enables a system configuration handler to easily view and set up a system with a target configuration. The ability to view the differences between the two configurations provides the flexibility to individually set the specific configuration details, if required, instead of cloning the entire configuration. Learn more Visit Dell.com/PowerEdge for more information on Dell s enterprise-class servers. WSMAN Interface Guide for Linux: WSMAN Interface Guide for Windows: WSMAN command line open source for Linux (Openwsman): WSMAN command line for Windows (Winrm): Scripting the Dell Lifecycle Controller: All about Lifecycle Controller in idrac: